Trenton Doyle Hancock on Good Vegan Progression #5

Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) Artist-In-Residence Trenton Doyle Hancock discusses the ideas and the process behind his collaboration with FWM to create a backdrop for the original ballet production Cult Of Color: Call To Color.

Hancock works with varied media, including painting, drawing, print, assemblage, sculpture, and literature, to tell a mythology all his own. A synthesis of serialized superhero format and Biblical allegory, his work chronicles the epic conflict between two races called the Mounds and The Vegans, respectively. To depict the story, he deploys the color palette and visual energy of 20th Century Abstract Expressionists upon scenes reminiscent of the swarming, didactic canvases of Northern Renaissance masters. His project Cult Of Color: Call To Color interprets this self-generated mythology and incorporates visual elements of his work through dance and production design. Developed in conjunction with Ballet Austin, Cult Of Color: Call To Color was performed at Austin Ventures Studio Theater April 3–13, 2008.

The clip featured on this site comes from an educational video about this project produced by the FWM. The entire video is available for viewing at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, or may be borrowed for educational purposes. Contact us at info@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org for more information.

Project coordinators Andrea Landau and Nami Yamamoto worked closely with the artist to create a massive backdrop for the production that would create a world for Hancock's Mounds and Vegans to inhabit. Measuring 54 feet wide by 18 feet high, the backdrop was assembled in-house from a variety of fabrics, including digitally printed fabrics that integrate the artist's own painterly stroke into the work. Silhouettes of over one hundred trees were traced on to these different fabrics, cut out, placed on the patch-worked background, and hand stitched to the expansive backdrop to create a multicolored forest.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum also aided in the production of other fabric yardage that will be utilized in the ballet's set and props. The artist developed three unique yardage repeat designs, "Striated MoundMeat," "Jismystical MoundMeat," and "Proto MoundMeat" which have been digitally printed on Polyester Lycra.